Lexinton police are investigating a robbery on a man who sold items on Craigslist Tuesday in Lexington, Kentucky. Police spokeswoman Sherelle Roberts indicated that the robbery was the third or the fourth instance of a crime committed that was hatched through Craigslist where people usually post items for sale or trade anonymously.
About 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, police received a call from an apartment complex parking lot located on 3500 block Laredo Drive. The caller told police that he had posted on Craigs list some items for sale and had driven to Laredo Drive to meet with the buyer.
Upon arriving at the scene, the victim relates that two men pointed a gun at him and robbed him of several expensive items which include; an iPad tablet computer, an iPod MP3 player, the victim’s wallet and an iPhone. It is still unclear what items that the victim is planning to sell to the disguised buyers who turned out to be robbers.
Sherelle Roberts cautioned Craigslist sellers and buyers to only agree in meeting buyers in safe, well lit and busy places during daytime and avoid meeting in isolated places where no witnesses are around to help you in cases that it becomes a robbery instead of a simple buy and sell transaction.
“Don’t go to people’s homes or secluded areas,” Roberts said. “If someone is not willing to meet you in a public place … then you should not do business with that person.”
The World Wide Web can be a useful tool to trade items to other people, but it can also become a tool of criminals, that’s why extra caution is needed whenever someone deals with anonymous people online.
